Eric Church's guitars and strings: the Epiphone Hummingbird Dark signature
Eric Church is a Gibson and Epiphone signature artist. His Hummingbird Dark acoustic and the .012–.053 string gauge Gibson lists for it.
reviewed by the Change Your Strings editorial team ·
Eric Church is an American country singer-songwriter and a Gibson and Epiphone signature artist. His Hummingbird Dark acoustic-electric, built on his higher-tier Gibson Hummingbird signature, launched as a $799 Epiphone in July 2026. Gibson's own spec sheet lists the guitar's factory string gauge as .012 to .053, without naming a brand. A D'Addario EJ16 Phosphor Bronze Light set, the same gauge, is the closest catalog match for a player restringing one.
Eric Church is an American country singer-songwriter known for a rock-leaning edge inside a mainstream country catalog. For string buyers, what matters is that he is a documented Gibson and Epiphone signature artist, anchoring his gear to a specific, current, affiliate-eligible catalog.
The Hummingbird Dark
Church's signature line centers on the Hummingbird body shape, Gibson's classic square-shouldered dreadnought. In July 2026, Epiphone launched an affordable version of his higher-tier Gibson signature: the Hummingbird Dark, a $799 acoustic-electric with a solid European spruce top, mahogany back and sides, and dark cosmetic appointments throughout, including black binding and grey pearloid inlays.
Strings
Gibson does not publish a string brand for the Hummingbird Dark, so we do not invent one. What is documented, straight from Gibson's own spec sheet: a .012 to .053 light gauge, six strings, standard for a square-shouldered dreadnought. The closest catalog match in that exact gauge is D'Addario's EJ16 Phosphor Bronze Light.
EJ16 Phosphor Bronze Light (.012–.053)
Why this one: The exact gauge Gibson's own spec sheet lists for the Hummingbird Dark, a warm phosphor bronze light set built for a mahogany and spruce dreadnought.
This is a starter profile. Documented rig detail will expand as sourced specs are confirmed. The launch also ran in CYS's July 9 news briefing.